Containers for the storing and dispensing of wet wipes are common on the market. Containers are designed to provide the best storage conditions and dispensing action for wipes. Consumers obtain one solidly constructed container with their first purchase of wipes and then subsequently purchase only refill packs of wipes when the supply of wipes sold with the container has been exhausted.
This strategy is desirable because the containers themselves are reusable. This saves money and reduces damage to the environment as individual consumers only need one or two containers per household. Also because the manufacturer does not need to provide a new container with each pack, the numbers of containers needed to be manufactured will be much lower. With lower volumes required, each container can also be therefore made to a higher quality and durability standard than would be economically viable if the container was to be replaced with each pack of wipes.
Containers for wet wipes have been described frequently in the art. The refill packs (or pouches) are simply a stack of wet wipes packaged in shrink wrap or an equivalent. This simplicity enables considerable cost savings to be passed on to the consumer.
Containers and refill packs are usually designed to fit both technically and commercially together. Dimensions, colors, icons, identification indicia, usage instructions and commercial messages are consistent between the two, enabling both an easy and efficient refill of the container by the refill pack as well as a clear identification of which refill pack should fit into which container.
However, the push to provide products of lowest possible cost and best convenience to the user, tends to bring uniformity and standardization in the overall appearance of the refill packs and of their corresponding containers. There is therefore a risk for human error in the use of refill packs with reusable containers.
For example hard surface cleaning wipes refill packs could generally fit into containers originally intended for baby wipe. Hard surface cleaning wipes can obviously comprise chemicals that are neither intended nor desirable for use on human skin. Similarly the reverse situation, inadvertent placement of a refill of baby wipes in a container for hard-surface cleaning is undesired. Attempting to clean a glass surface with a baby wipe containing skin moisturizers will leave oily residues on the surface of the glass.
Less dramatic, though still undesirable, is the accidental mix-up between a refill pack of wipes and a container, when both are compatible with human skin use but have different characteristics. For example regular scented baby wipes in a container intended for especially sensitive baby skin wipes that are unscented. Or more generally the unintentional placement of regular skin wipes into a container of hypo-allergenic skin wipes. A further example would be the use of wipes that require solid disposal (in regular waste) mistakenly placed in container for flushable toilet wipes (disposed of in a toilet).
This potential for error is even more pronounced because the recognition of an incorrect match between refill pouch and container cannot readily be determined once the wrong refill has been inserted into a package. In most situations the error will only be identified when the desired result is not achieved, or that the desired result is accompanied by undesired effects.
It would also be desirable to provide containers that efficiently help to reveal that the contents of the container are the variety of wipe indicated by the container, while keeping the physical and functional characteristics of the wipes container unaltered. This is important as the container can still be used for wipes of a different type as long as this is a deliberate and conscious decision.
It would be desirable to make a wipes container that can provide sensory perceptible outputs when in use.
It would therefore be highly desirable to have a wipes container that would provide certain sensory perceptible outputs only when the desired wipe refill pack is in place. This would provide a simple method for the user of the wipes in the container to be certain that the wipes are the type corresponding to the container.